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Category: math and Christmas

Here’s a timely article on helping students learm math at Christmas time.

Christmas Math Activities

Christmas math activities are an ideal classroom treat during the time leading up to Christmas. However there are lots of Christmas math activities that are also ideal for home. These Christmas activities with a focus on math are an ideal way to make math practice fun and to get kids really enthusiastic about math.

Try these Christmas math activities with the kids and you are sure to have them begging for more.

Christmas Counting
This is a version of the counting game Buzz. For the Christmas version, you just need to replace the word ‘buzz’ with a Christmas word. You could use the word ‘Santa’ or the word ‘reindeer’ instead of ‘buzz’. To play the game, the children count around the group with each person taking a turn to say a number. When they get to the number 7, any multiple of 7 or any number containing a digit 7, they simply say ‘Santa’ instead of saying the number. If a player says the number instead of saying ‘Santa’ they are out. The counting will go like this, ‘1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Santa, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, Santa.

The aim of the game is to count as far as possible with no one making a mistake or it can be played as an elimination game with the last person left in the game being the winner. It can also be played using a different number as the ‘Santa’ number. Try it with the number 5 for an easier version of the game or try it with 8 or 9 for a more difficult version.

Santa’s Sleigh
This Christmas math activity is ideal for practicing any basic math skills that you choose. You will need a picture of a sleigh and pictures of 8 reindeer for each player or team. The children can be involved in drawing the reindeer pictures and might like to name each reindeer also. The object of the game is to be the first player or team to add the 8 reindeer in front of Santa’s sleigh.

Two players or teams compete to be the first to answer the question. You could use basic addition facts for the game or more complex calculations involving decimal numbers or percentages. The first player to answer correctly wins a reindeer to add in front of their sleigh. The reindeer can be taped or pinned onto the sleigh. The first player or team with eight reindeer is the winner.

There are many, many different ways to give your math practice a Christmas flavor. Use the Christmas math activities above to make math more interesting but also consider some other educational Christmas activities. Try some Christmas word puzzles like a Christmas ‘Word Find’ or play a game of Christmas hangman with Christmas words. You could also try a game of Christmas bingo using Christmas words. Hope these ideas help to make Christmas more fun for the kids. Merry Christmas!